Pachyderm Advice

Tips by Jared Bendis of Case Western Reserve University


Never, never, never hit the back button!
(I found this out myself. Great advice.)

Stay away from using videos (mov) files. Version 2.0 produces and error and then opens in another window not within the pachyderm display.

Do not add links to web pages. Keep the project self contained. Otherwise you may lose your viewer to another web site and may never get them back.

Start at the most specific elements and work back to general information.

Jared’s analogy: Treat a Pachyderm project like a tree. Start with the leaves then the branches and finally the trunk.

We must control the flow of the project to the viewer.

Each page should be independent of its information.

The user should load the images or assets first.

Max image size is 2560 x 2048 pixels.

Name images factually. No goofy names to confuse any searches.

When entering metadata to each image use at least the two below"
Contributor = the creator (don't use real name, use initials or false name)
Tombstone – a must to fill out. If no other information is given on an asset the tombstone text will be used.

You can search on Media after it is entered.

Design ahead of time.

Do not use the Time Line template.

Type your text in Word then spell check it. From your word file you will cut and paste into Pachyderm.

We can do basic html for bold and italic.

We can’t change font or size.

Jared recommended that I try the Slider template! Keep images to 8 or 10 only. I did so and used 9 images for promoting MediaVision's Video Production.

When exporting the final product via the Zip button, we must use a third party zip program such as WinZip. Pachyderm is not compatible with XP or Vista’s Zip program. This I also found out on my own.

All in all, Jared was very informative.